Could the New York Jets Be Gearing Up for a Push Toward Peyton Manning?

The New York Jets are going to have to pull a rabbit out of their salary cap in order to make a big splash in the 2012 NFL free agency market.

Left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson is no rabbit, but pulling him out of the equation is a good start. Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that he agreed to restructure his deal with the Jets. As a result, Mehta projects that the Jets could save as much as $7.5 million extra off the cap.

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The Jets converted $9 million of Ferguson’s $9.985 million base salary in 2012 to a signing bonus to give the team more cap space, according to a source. The cap value of the converted signing bonus will be spread over the remaining six years of Ferguson’s contract. So, the Jets will get an additional $7.5 million of cap relief this season. 

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That's huge news for a Jets team that was sitting uncomfortably close to the salary cap just under 24 hours ago.

And it's not terrribly unfamiliar.

Déja Vu

The Jets tried desperately to restructure deals in such a way that they could acquire Nnamdi Asomugha, and though they were ultimately successful in creating the space, they were unsuccessful in their pursuit of the prize free agent. That left them in dire straits this year.

According to a chart from Omar Kelly of the Miami Sun-Sentinel, the Jets were projected to have less than $2.3 million in cap space as of February 21. With the restructured deal just handed to Ferguson, the Jets figure to have close to $10 million in cap space.

Could this be the first move of many more, as was the case last season?

It certainly is, at least if you ask ESPN New York's Jets beat writer Rich Cimini.

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@markymark3130 Just like I said they would. And there will be more.

— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) February 23, 2012"

There are some options for other players that could be restructured, but such a move is not free of risk. It increases the amount of "dead money" off the cap should the player be cut, money that can't be spent elsewhere. 

What it means

By no mean does the new cap space make the Jets front runners in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes—that distinction likely belongs to the Miami Dolphins, Arizona Cardinals and Washington Redskins (in no particular order)—but it does get the Jets headed in the right direction for other reasons.

Where it once seemed like a long-shot for the Jets to even keep their own free agents, it now seems possible they could keep their own and still have enough money to be a player in the market should they want to fill a need.

But that's not all. Head coach Rex Ryan repeatedly refused to close the door on Peyton Manning despite having every opportunity to do so. Mike Freeman from CBS Sports and Ian Rapoport of The Boston Herald were among many others who made reference of this on Thursday morning.

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Rex Ryan is refusing to shut the door on Peyton Manning coming to his team. Over and over. "We are exploring all possibilities."

— Ian R. Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 23, 2012"

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Here's the interesting thing: Rex Ryan refuses to shut door on Peyton Manning joining team. That's gonna go over really well in NY.

— mike freeman (@realfreemancbs) February 23, 2012"

It wouldn't likely take much to land Manning in the way of guaranteed money, but the kicker comes in the incentives. It will likely be the best of the incentive-laden deals that ultimately determines which uniform Manning suits up in for the 2012 season.

If the Jets can make another couple of moves, they could put themselves in a good position to go after him. But it's not always that simple.

Problems

The Jets can't talk to Peyton Manning until March 8 at the earliest (that's the deadline for his $28 million bonus), at which point any team can talk to him.

If the Jets restructure all these deals to make the space only to come up short once again, that would be a major letdown and would present a similar problem next year to what you see this year, with certain players that might be worthy of a cut any other offseason now seeing bigger guaranteed money.

And the problem with that comes in who they'd likely have to restructure: quarterback Mark Sanchez, who is due $14 million in 2012. Doing so to bring in Peyton, Just months after Rex publicly vouched for Sanchez over Peyton, would only heighten the drama around such a move.

But drama's nothing new to Ryan and the Jets.

Follow @ErikFrenz